Code: Evil Black Cat
by eko24
Summary: Xana has found a way to possess Odd. Jeremie and the other Lyoko Warriors need to fight to bring Odd back over to their side but Xana isn't about to let Odd go easily. Sissi joins the group in attempt to help them bring Xana down, and with her help, they might be able to free Odd from Xana. - I do not own Code Lyoko or its Characters-
1. A Piece Of Xana

"Odd, you protect Aelita while she's in the tower," Ulrich Stern told Odd Della Robbia in Lyoko one night as he deflected attacks from a Blok.

"Yes sir, mister Ulrich, sir," said Odd, shooting at the blok that Ulrich was fighting. He watched it explode as his laser arrow hit Xana's eye dead center before heading for the tower.

"Ulrich, better watch your back, Odd's catching up to you," Jeremie laughed, seeing the statistics in a window on his computer screen. Odd was only a monster away from being tied with Ulrich. Of course Yumi was way ahead of both of them.

"He hasn't been able to beat me yet. Some bloks are no big deal," Ulrich responded. He triplicated and sent his sword through the last block just as two Krabs approached him.

Yumi looked over Jeremie's shoulder. "What's Xana doing? As far as I know there's nothing going wrong here. An activated tower but nothing in result?"

Jeremie nodded, glancing at the news. "Nothing too severe, some robberies that have been stopped, some rain in Italy… Maybe we're just taking him down faster than he anticipated."

"What's Xana doing? Aelita is already deactivating the tower, so I guess we'll just materialize everyone when she's done and take a look?" Yumi asked.

"Scyphozoa!" Jeremie hollered suddenly.

In Lyoko, Odd turned from the tower he was leaning on to see the Scyphozoa. Aelita was in the tower already so she was safe. Why was it here?

"Odd, take it out," Jeremie commanded frantically. "That's what Xana is doing… he just wanted to get us on Lyoko.

"I'd love to Einstein, but I forgot to tell you… I'm out of arrows. I figured I was done…" Odd replied, stepping away from the Scyphozoa, feeling like a complete idiot.

Jeremie went to work to set Odd up with arrows. "I really need to find a way for you to have unlimited ammo…"

An error message came onto the screen. Jeremie was unable to give Odd ammo. He panicked more and started to tell Odd that he was on his own when -

"Wait!" Yumi screamed. "That thing has Odd!"

"What?" Ulrich yelled. "I have my hands full with monsters. Can Aelita take care of it when she's done with the tower?" He dodged a blow from a Krab but the other Krab hit him. He devirtualized.

Aelita finished deactivating the tower and ran out to help Odd. An energy blast sprouted from her hand

"Energy field!" she cried and she sent it straight for Xana's eye in the middle of it.

The monster released Odd and backed away into hiding. Aelita knelt down to see what the damage was.

"last time the Scyphozoa got Yumi it took away her human code or whatever. You think Xana's trying to do that to Odd?" Ulrich asked when he came up to join Yumi and Jeremie.

"Maybe," Jeremie replied. "Or he has another plan, Xana usually doesn't do the same thing twice. I'm going to try to devirtualize him to find out."

Odd woke up, shook his head. "What's happened? I feel kind of funny."

"The Scyphozoa did something. For now let's go into the tower to be safe, Hmm?" Aelita suggested to him. She helped him up, They went into the tower and Odd fell to a sitting position, he had a killer headache.

"Odd, get up and let me scan your virtual structure. Stand right in the middle of the tower and stay still," Jeremie told him. "The devirtualization didn't work."

Odd cursed under his breath. "I may love being a Lyoko Warrior, but I don't want to stay here alone." He stood up and followed Jeremie's orders. Jeremie scanned Odd's character and copied the files to his hard drive. He looked everything over.

"Almost done?" Ulrich asked impatiently. He sat with Yumi on the ground next to Jeremie. "If we're all late to class…"

"I found it! Oh Odd…" Jeremie looked at the file helplessly. "Xana has inserted in you a part of him. That piece is preventing you from being devirtualized."

"So what's going to happen to me?" Odd asked, wide eyed. He jumped away from Aelita, now that he knew part of Xana rested in him, he knew Aelita could be in danger.

"You can't leave Lyoko. Next time we go in we'll need to go into sector five to figure out how to fix this. I'll start checking around to see if I can access anything on my own."

"Devirtualize Aelita now then. If Xana has something in me, I don't want her around if it surfaces," Odd said. "I'll just hang out in the tower until you guys can come back."

"You're sure you'll be okay, Odd?" Aelita asked as Jeremie began her devirtualization. A look of worry was plastered on her face.

Odd nodded and smiled as she disappeared from his sight.

"Just hang tight Odd, I'm staying here to work on this, but the others are going to go to class so our teachers don't get suspicious. They'll make up a good excuse for us," Jeremie promised.

"Yeah, we'll tell them your stomach exploded, Odd," Ulrich joked.

And Jeremie's brain exploded?" Yumi added, laughing.

"Ha ha," Jeremie and Odd said at the same time in the same sarcastic tone.


	2. Xana's Power

The three of them left the factory to go to their classes and Odd decided to exercise a bit to pass time. He bent down and stood on his hands, bending his elbows, lifting, and letting his arms fall. He continued this way, walking on his hands, anything he could think of to entertain himself. After what felt like hours, he heard Jeremie's voice again.

"Okay, I've got it," Odd heard. "The others don't need to be here, you can handle this. It'll be a piece of cake."

"Isn't that a little risky?" Odd asked. "Besides, Aelita is the one who can read all of that technical mumbo jumbo and send it to you."

"You'll be able to manage. I've called up your overboard so you can get to the end of the sector with no trouble, and I don't see any monsters. When you get there, I'll enter the code."

"Sounds easy enough," Odd said, leaving the tower.

Meanwhile, in the factory, Jeremie was yelling at Odd to stop. He wasn't the one telling him to go to the fifth sector alone, and he wasn't the one entering the code. He watched helplessly as Xana used the computer programs to lead Odd into a trap.

The elevator doors swung open and Aelita, and Yumi came to stand beside him. Ulrich was conned into helping Jim run a beginners martial arts lesson for the younger kids. Jeremie showed them what was going on and Aelita gasped.

Yumi frowned, "What's going on?! Jeremie do something!"

""Yumi, go down to the scanner room. You need to stop Odd. I'm going to send you directly to sector five to head him off. Aelita, stay here and help me fix this! Xana bugged everything up! That was probably part of his attack."

Yumi didn't waste any time and she was virtualized in record time, right into the fifth sector, Aelita went to work reading the computer screen. She and Jeremie began working out the debugging process.

Yumi arrived just as Odd was. He looked at her in curiosity. "Hey, Jeremie I thought the others weren't coming?"

"What?" Yumi asked. "But Jeremie has been trying to contact you… he never said we weren't coming."

"But…" Odd began, but just then felt a surge of something new streaming through his body, he clenched as his head for a moment but then the pain cleared, to make room for Xana's control. He took off when the door opened and Yumi followed him.

"Hey, Jeremie! Did you hear him?! Xana's behind this!" Yumi asked, trying to keep up with him, but not doing well. Once more, there was a whole squadron of monsters blocking them. At least that would slow him down…

But it didn't. The monsters parted to let him pass but then blocked Yumi. "Jeremie, I have a horrible feeling about this," she said. Not hearing Jeremie's voice, she panicked. "Jeremie!?"

"I can hear her talking to me but she can't hear me," Jeremie said, in full panic mode. "And I can't control Odd at all, I can't devirtualize him."

"I think the best thing is to send me in," Aelita said. "I can help Yumi defeat all of those monsters, or at least distract them while she goes after Odd."

Before Jeremie could refuse, Aelita was on her way to the scanners. Jeremie shook his head and called Ulrich to let him know what was going on.

"What?!" Ulrich hissed. "Odd's not responding to you?"

"Neither of them can hear me. And Xana has control of him. She's there trying to fight through a whole mess of monsters but she's not having luck. Aelita is on her way there to help. Is there any way …" Jeremie started to ask.

"Yeah, I'll be there as fast as I can," Ulrich said before Jeremie could finish. He hung up and finished his demonstration.

"Stern! Excellent!" Jim praised. He started to say something else when Ulrich interrupted.

"This was fun but I'm wiped. Bye!" Ulrich said quickly and bolted. He took the short cut to the factory and was there in no time.

Meanwhile in Lyoko, Yumi and Aelita were barely denting the flock of monsters. Yumi did finally manage to sneak past them in hopes of finding Odd. "Where to, Jeremie?"

She remembered she had no contact with him so she decided to just wing it. She figured She'd head to the core of Sector Five where the heart was. Xana was always trying to destroy it.

"I can at least set her up with her ride," Jeremie said to himself. Ulrich arrived right at that moment. "Glad you could make it."

"Glad to be here. So what's going on now?" Ulrich inquired.

"Yumi's alone, trying to find Odd, I just set her up with her ride. Aelita is battling a medley of monsters with very little luck. What's weird is I don't see any scyphozoa… except…. Oh no! It's waiting for Odd, that's where he's going. In the chamber where the heart of Lyoko is. I think it wants to finish the job Aelita interrupted."

"I'm on it. I'll tell Yumi when I get there. There won't be any contact with you?" Ulrich asked as he pressed the elevator button to go to the scanner room.

"Nope, sorry. Good luck!" Jeremie called. "I'll virtualize you and your bike all at once."

Ulrich nodded as the elevator doors closed.

Jeremie tried to see whether or not he could send him straight to where Yumi was. He figured it out and did it. He materialized Ulrich beside Yumi, on his overbike. All he could do now was watch the show and debug their communications.

"Odd's headed for the scyphozoa. Near the heart of lyoko, we have to catch up!" Ulrich exclaimed. Yumi nodded, leading the way on her overwing.

Ulrich followed Yumi, hoping Aelita was doing okay. Little did he know, Aelita had already been devirtualized by the monsters. She stepped out of the scanners, feeling drained and helpless. She climbed the ladder up to the super calculator and stood by Jeremie.

The two watched in horror as the two lyoko warriors caught up with the third, too late. They watched the screen helplessly as Odd's memories were erased, to be replaced with new, Xana-fied ones. The coding all flashed before their eyes.

Ulrich and Yumi gasped as Odd fell, his outfit changing before their eyes to dark purple with red cuffs, all outlined in black. Xana's eye rested on his chest and his forehead. Yumi approached him cautiously, praying to god that this was just a sick joke.

Odd's eyes opened then, suddenly and he took aim and fired at Yumi. His arrows were faster and stronger than ever before. Yumi was devirtualized in a flash and Odd set his sights on Ulrich.

"Come on man!" Ulrich yelled. "Odd! Fight Xana, you're on our side!"

Odd laughed, "No I'm not. I always knew Xana's power would feel better than the power I got from Jeremie. Ulrich why don't you try this out?"

"No man," Ulrich retorted. As he said that he devirtualized. It wasn't due to any attacks, he knew. Jeremie just wanted him back, and he knew why. He didn't want the same thing to happen to Ulrich.

Losing Odd was bad enough, but losing two Lyoko Warriors to Xana would mean game over for planet Earth.


	3. Exhausted and Heartbroken

~Back in the Factory~

"This is a disaster!" Jeremie hollered, throwing a CD case at a wall. "How could I let this happen?"

"None of us could have known," Aelita said, trying to reason with him. She picked up the CD case and set it down on the ground next to her. "But we'll get him back… We have all of his original coding, all we need to do is get him into a way tower so we can disinfect him… bring his true memories back, and bring him home."

Aelita tried not to show it but she was completely shaken. Out of all of the Warriors, Odd was her closest friend. She'd always felt safe around him, and Xana stole that from him. "That bastard…" Aelita mumbled to herself.

Ulrich, who was sitting nearest to her, heard the soft utterance and scooted closer to her, putting an arm around her. He knew how close she was to Odd, he knew how she felt. He felt her shutter but then relax slightly, she reached around and hugged back.

"I can tell you right now, Xana isn't going to let Odd go easily. Odd's a pretty damn good fighter as it is. With extra Xana powers he's bound to be unstoppable," Yumi said pessimistically. "We need to go back to school though. Obviously there is nothing we can do now, we're all exhausted and heartbroken…" she said holding back tears. "We can't get Odd back without some rest. Tomorrow's Sunday so we'll be able to focus on fixing this situation."

Everyone nodded reluctantly and Jeremie did a few last things on the super computer and followed the others out. He knew he wouldn't sleep. He'd spend his night working on the program he would use to bring the Giant Purple Cat home.


	4. Can I Talk to You?

~Back at the school~

The Lyoko Warriors were being served dinner. The cafeteria lady stopped Ulrich, concern on her face.

"Where's Odd? I might actually have leftovers if he isn't here!"

"He's not feeling well tonight, he's skipping dinner," Ulrich informed her. "he asked me to tell you sorry for missing your delicious meals." He lied.

Rosa snorted in exasperation and gave Ulrich his food. Jeremie and Aelita next.

The three joined Yumi, who was already sitting at their table. Jeremie checked his computer, and gasped.

"There is an active tower… and Odd is nearby it. Xana doesn't waste any time when it comes to causing trouble…Guess he wants to test out his new weapon." He hated himself for referring to Odd in such a way.

"This is going to be tough…" Aelita breathed. "fighting against Odd… I know we've done it before for training, but not like this."

"When should we go?" Ulrich asked. "We need to get Odd back, I can't take care of Kiwi all by myself."

"We can go now; Or when dinner is over. With any luck we can sneak out no problem," Jeremie replied.

"I'm going to the factory now, I finished my food. If there is an active tower something's got to be going wrong around here. I'll check things out and stay in touch," Yumi said, bolting from the lunch room. Sissi noticed Yumi's exit and grinned, looking at Ulrich. She got up and followed Yumi out. Of course, she totally evaded notice of Ulrich, as he usually avoided looking at her.

Yumi started walking, she felt that there was no need to run, since there was no threat so far. She headed for the forest, keeping an eye on the people she passed. No Xana eyes, no snarling. One thing she did notice, Sissi hiding behind some bushes. Yumi smirked and sprinted, doing a roundoff and a backtwist flip next to her. Sissi schreaked and Yumi broke out laughing.

"Did I surprise you? Why are you following me? I'm just taking a walk."

"Can I talk to you?" Sissi asked quietly. "Please?"

Yumi thought of the times that Sissi gave her and her friends grief. She also knew that deep down, SIssi could be pretty cool. She nodded, standing up and holding out a hand for Sissi.

"What's up?" Yumi asked her.


	5. You Lead The Way

~A few minutes later~

"So you've always known about Lyoko?" Yumi asked, taken aback.

"Yep. Well the night after Ulrich and Odd were virtualized for the first time, I snuck back to the factory and managed somehow to scan myself. I couldn't actually virtualize myself… I would have needed Jeremie for that and I knew he didn't like me much… Anyway, I know the returns to the past don't affect people who have been scanned so that's why I still remember. I always wish I hadn't scanned myself because of it." Sissi rambled. "Anyway, because I remember Lyoko but knew you guys didn't want me to be part of your group, I stayed in the background and tried to help you where I could from Earth." She finished, biting her lip nervously. Sissi never thought she would ever admit this to anybody, especially Yumi.

"I can remember a lot of times you caused us trouble too," Yumi retorted.

"Moments of bitter hatred. I always knew you'd pull through though."

"So what do you want?"

"I overheard that Odd's been possessed by Xana." Sissi explained. "I want to help get him back."

"Jeremie said that the computer found him in the mountains. I don't think we need your help." Yumi shook her head. "Besides, just because you apologized, doesn't mean I forgive you. You've given Ulrich and I nothing but trouble from the beginning."

"Well, I know that… but honestly it was always just to keep up appearances. And because I really feel strongly for Ulrich… I really am sorry though," Sissi pleaded. "Please? I miss what could have been."

Yumi thought it over, figuring it wouldn't hurt to have backup on Lyoko in case things got messy. "I guess backup could be helpful if we're going to Lyoko. Alright, but if you even set one toe out of line, I'll take you out myself."

"Oh? I've been training, wait until you see me in action in lyoko before you judge," Sissi smirked. "Of course, I won't give you reason to question my loyalty."

Yumi nodded. "I'm heading to the factory now. You lead the way."

** ~Author Notes~**

**Okay! So I've posted everything that I have edited… Hopefully I didn't mess up somewhere, This is set before William became a Lyoko Warrior. In fact, In my happy place he never became one! Never liked William… (William lovers, don't hate me! It's just my opinion…)**

** So yeah… Basically this focuses on Odd. I feel that there can NEVER be too much Odd. I already have a lot of this written but it's stream of thought and structured terribly so I'm fixing it up a bit before posting each chapter. The chapters are going to be shorter for the most part, I'm just setting the stage as this point. Once things get heated up, they'll get longer. **

** Anyway… that's all I've got to say now… Hope you enjoy :D**


	6. Practice Run

Sissi did lead Yumi to the factory. She took Odd's skateboard, considering he wasn't there to use it. She even knew the code to access the computer room. Yumi took a seat at the computer, checking things out. She didn't have a clear visual of Odd but she could see the activated tower.

"I guess maybe Jeremie is the only one who could control this thing well enough to spot him." Sissi offered, when she figured out what Yumi was doing. "Let's just wait for them. You can fill me in on what's new there."

Yumi nodded, leaving the computer. The two girls sat cross-legged on the floor and Yumi began explaining everything. She told Sissi about sector five, Xana's new monsters, what haooened to Odd, and some tips for when the others came in.

That moment finally arrived and Aelita immediately scowled. "Yumi, what have you done?"

Jeremie was silent, so was Ulrich, who stared, confused, at Yumi.

"She knows," Yumi said simply. "She remembers Lyoko, Aelita, Xana, everything. She overheard us when we were talking about Odd and she wants to be virtualized and she wants to help."

"Absolutely not. She'd be devirtualized by Xana's monsters in seconds!" Ulrich protested.

"I've been training in pencak silat, you know that… I can help, just give me a chance. I already told Yumi how sorry I am for all of the grief I've given you." Sissi said, looking right at Jeremie, then at Ulrich. "You must admit I've been very helpful in some situations too."

"That's true," Jeremie said. "Either way, I want to get to Lyoko fast. Who knows when we'll see the trouble Xana's tower causes?"

"Let's go to the scanners. Her too?" Aelita asked, referring to Sissi.

Sissi looked to each of them, hoping for a unanimous yes. She knew Yumi was okay with it, but she wasn't sure about the others.

"Yes," Jeremie said. "As long as she is comfortable going to Lyoko."

"Of course I am confident… I would not have come to you if I wasn't." She pushed the button for the elevator.

"If we tell you to do something, do it. None of this stubborn acting on your own. That's what got you kicked out of the group in the first place," Ulrich said as the elevator arrived. Sissi nodded earnestly and the four of them went down to the scanners.

"I'll scan Ulrich first. Then the girls can go. Sissi, you can ride Odd's overboard. Hope you know how to surf."

"I'll learn, if Odd can do it, it must be manageable," Sissi said as she watched Ulrich virtualize. She, Yumi, and Aelita stepped into scanners and they followed Ulrich into Lyoko.

Yumi and Ulrich landed right on their vehicles. Aelita hopped onto Ulrich's overbike and Sissi climbed onto the overboard.

Her attire was a fuchsia pink bodysuit with green cuffs on her arms and legs. A green belt tied off to the side finished the look. Her hair was tied back with metallic green and pink ribbon that flowed into her hair. She looked around at Yumi and Ulrich, smiling.

"Just to let you know, I know you can't see your face but you've got green and pink tribal markings just like Odd had… except his were purple…" Yumi informed Sissi, she said the last part sadly. Everyone was silent for a minute, remembering how much Odd loved the color purple.

"Jeremie, where is the tower?" Aelita asked after getting a good look at Sissi.

"In the mountain region, far north-east. Take Ulrich with you there. Yumi and Sissi, go find Odd! He's somewhere north-west of your current position. Try to see if you have any luck getting him into a way tower."

Yumi nodded, she looked to Sissi who was riding around on the overboard, getting used to it. The two of them took off to look for Odd.

"Sissi, you have a weapon. Call out the word "Baton," and it will appear for you," Jeremie told her. "The scan I just did shows that you are also telepathic."

Sissi nodded at no one in particular. "Baton!" She said. A baton came into her sight and she took hold of it. She admired the green ribbon that sprouted from each end of the baton.

"The ribbon is razor sharp. Be careful," Jeremie warned.

"Okay, Jeremie, sometime I'll have to practice with it. I can't imagine how I'll fight with this, clobber monsters over the head, or what?""

"You have your chance to find out now. Two krabs, dead ahead. You ready?" Yumi asked, taking out a fan with one hand, holding onto her hoverwing with the other.

Sissi nodded, calculating in her head the best way to attack. "Where should I hit them? I never had a chance to battle these."

"Xana's eye on the top of their… heads, or whatever they are," Jeremie told her.

"I'm checking in with Ulrich and Aelita."

Yumi wasted no time, and neither did the krabs. They began blasting at them quickly. As if instinctively, Sissi twirled her baton quickly to shield herself from their blasts. She then sent the baton flying at one of them and it sliced through the top of its shell, returning to her.

"So it works like my fans, cool. Don't tell the boys but I think boomerang weapons are the best of them," Yumi said, as she took out the other krab.

An arrow whizzed past Sissi's head, she looked to see where it came from and hollered for Yumi to look out.

Yumi dodged the arrow, barely. She gasped and moved closer to Sissi. "Odd!" She screamed.

Odd stood, smirking at them. He was alone, but he looked confident. "Miss me, Yumi? I see Sissi's here… so you replace me with her? How sad." He joked.

Yumi remembered that she and Sissi had to try to attract him to a way tower. Jeremie tuned in just in time. "There is a way tower just south of where you are. Aelita just deactivated the tower and she and Ulrich are going to come help you."

Yumi looked Sissi in the eye for a moment and she sent her fan flying at Odd. She and Sissi quickly turned around and made a getaway to the tower. Odd swore as the fan hit him, he stopped it returning to Yumi and destroyed it.

"I always thought that fans were childish and weak. Just like you, Yumi!" He hollered as he chased after them. He saw that Sissi was on his overboard and decided to have some fun. The overboard began to shoot straight up, then jutted sideways. Sissi flew off of it, and he made a run for it to catch her. Xana would love some fresh meat, a new weapon.

Ulrich beat him to the punch. Aelita made room for Sissi and when they were close enough to Yumi, Sissi jumped onto the Overwing. The four of them were becoming a bother. Odd stalked them and tried taking them out but they were too far to get a good aim at them.

Suddenly, Xana's voice rang in Odd's head. "Return to me, Odd."

"But..." Odd tried to protest but flinched as Xana repeated his command. Odd veered off, jumping into the digital sea. He figured Xana wanted to give him a mission to complete, something better for defeating the Warriors.

Sissi noticed first, "He just went into the digital sea," she told Ulrich and Aelita.

"What?" Ulrich exclaimed. He turned to see the edge of the sector where he assumed Odd had made his exit. "Jeremie…"

"He's gone from my screen but something tells me he's not gone for good. Let me bring you three in," Jeremie suggested.

"No," Sissi haulted. " think since Xana is obviously going to leave us alone now… Can I practice for a bit here?"

"I think we have time," Aelita said with a smile. "The tower is deactivated. We can find some monsters somewhere I'm sure."

"Fine, be careful," Jeremie said reluctantly and the three warriors set off in search for monsters. Aelita and Ulrich were anxious to let off some steam and Sissi was just happy to have a chance to practice. She found out that she could virtualize two batons at once and she could use them like sai swords. The batons could be used as blunt weapons or they could be super sharp depending on how she wanted the attack to go.

She took out the final Hornet and looked at Ulrich, who was looking thoughtfully at the Digital Sea. "On one hand this was a pretty fun practice run for me," she said to him.

Aelita swooped down from a ledge. She deactivated her pink angel wings. "On the other hand, Xana's possessed Odd and we're probably in for rough battles ahead."

"We'll pull through. I'm not giving up until I have my room mate back," Ulrich vowed as Jeremie devirtualized the three of them.

* * *

~Author's Notes~

So that was a little sketchy I think… I'd love to hear what you think of this story so far!

I feel obligated to say: I do not own Code Lyoko or its characters. I do, however, own this plot.


	7. Genuinely Confused

~Back at Kadic~

Herve and Nicholas were genuinely confused as they walked into the cafeteria for breakfast. Odd Della Robbia was missing from Ulrich's table, and in his place was Sissi. The boys approached the table and just stood there at a loss for words. Sissi looked up at them with a look of irritation on her face.

"What do you two want?" She asked asked in her usual shrewd voice.

"Where's Della Robbia?" Nicholas asked absent-mindedly.

"His parents pulled him out of school this week for a vacation," Aelita said to them kindly. "He should be back here with us next week sometime," Jeremie took her hand beneath the table and squeezed it.

"And, uh, Sissi… I thought we'd eat together this morning," Herve said hoping she'd ditch Ulrich's table for him. He always hoped, he was always foolishly optimistic.

"No thank you, Herve," Sissi said abruptly. "I'm sitting with Ulrich, Jeremie, Yumi, and Aelita today. Go away now, you two."

"Yeah go do something productive," Yumi said, trying not to sound too harsh but coming off as such anyway.

"Sissi doesn't like you two following her around so why don't you go follow each other around," Ulrich added. Nicholas and Herve looked at each other for a moment unsure of what to make of this and walked off to get some food.

"Sissi is hanging out with Ulrich and his freak friends and I don't like it," Herve said when they were out of earshot of the group.

Nicholas got a tray for himself and handed one to Herve. "Maybe they're right. Maybe we should try to find something else to do. We've been trying to be friends with Sissi for years and it's not working."

Herve scowled at the selection of food in front of him as he thought about this. All he'd ever wanted was for Sissi to give him a chance, he thought he deserved that. He knew in his mind that the logical thing to do would be give up and focus on school and work, but in his heart all he wanted was to be with Sissi. Nothing else mattered.

And besides, what did Ulrich Stern have that was so great? He was a failure at school and hung out with freaks.

"So you want to play billiards after classes tonight? Delmas finally gave in and ordered a table!" Nicholas continued excitedly.

Herve nodded sadly, knowing that he should at least take a break; maybe if he stayed away from Sissi she would miss him and come find him!

Nicholas and Herve sat down at a table alone, far away from the warriors who were discussing what had just happened between them.

"It's not like I completely dislike the two of them, I just wish they weren't so…" Sissi tried to find the proper word. "How can I put this…"

"Clingy?" Aelita suggested.

"Overbearing?" Yumi offered.

"Pathetic?" Ulrich snorted.

"Yes! All three, actually… They are nice enough people but not really my type. Nicholas is too stupid and Herve is too in love with me to keep his head on straight so he acts stupider than Nicholas sometimes!" Sissi took a bite out of her croissant, chewed, swallowed, and continued talking, "I don't see Herve that way and I wish he'd accept that."

Ulrich raised an eyebrow, about to say something when Jeremie put his hand up to halt him. "Alright, that's enough talk about that…" Jeremie intervened; he thought Sissi was full of shit. She loved hanging, or should he say _bossing_ those guys around before Yumi let her into their group. He was still curious about why Yumi did that. He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and took a swig of his hot chocolate.

"You're right, Jeremie," Ulrich said. "What do you think Xana wants to do with Odd?"

"My honest opinion?" Jeremie asked. The whole table was watching him silently awaiting his thoughts. He hated when they did that, it's not like he would always be right… "No idea. He could want Odd to attack the core of Lyoko, he could want Odd to do much worse. We won't know until it happens, I'm afraid."

Ulrich balled his fist. "This is a nightmare."

"You don't think… we could try to make contact with Odd? Try to make him remember who his real allies are?" Aelita asked thoughtfully.

"It's possible… his true, unaltered memory must be in sector five, where Xana stores all of his data. We could try to access it and I can try to send bits of it to Odd's character. He won't realize them upfront but if someone can talk to him…" Jeremie drifted off, thinking of the scenarios that would play out.

"I thought you said you didn't have any control over Odd's character anymore?" Yumi asked.

"That's right," Jeremie nodded sadly, remembering. "So I don't know how we could do this…"

"I could go in and try to tak to him anyway," Aelita suggested hopefully. "He might still hold some memories as it is. I mean Xana probably kept memories that would give him the upper hand fighting Ulrich, Yumi, and me. He's got to have his memory… Xana just changed his perception of them."

"That would be risky though, sending you in to make contact," Jeremie said, shaking his head. "For now, let's just stay off of Lyoko… I will continue to work on Odd's program and if I need more information I'll send you into sector five, but only if. We aren't going to try anything else until we know we can bring him back."

Yumi, Ulrich, and Sissi nodded. Aelita hesitated, trying to think of an argument she could make to go to Lyoko sooner. She knew Jeremie was right. She nodded slowly. She stood up, taking her left over food to the trash and cleared her tray, leaving it on the tray table next to it. She left the cafeteria without a word.

"She's taking this really hard," Yumi speculated.

"Harder than the rest of us, I think. She must feel responsible or something," Jeremie added watching her through the window.

"I'm going to talk to her..." Sissi declared. "I think the two of us should bond a little, don't you think?"

"I'll take the rest of your food," Ulrich told her. "I'm actually really hungry this morning…"

"Odd isn't here but his stomach is living vicariously through you," Yumi smirked. Sissi left her tray for Ulrich and took off after Aelita.

* * *

~Author's Notes~

So I hope you like this… Can you see an Aelita x Odd theme emerging? Yes, I ship them so hard and hopefully I'll get a chance to show that in this fanfiction… It might be tricky. I know I gave a lot of chapters at once in the beginning but that's because I had a lot of chapters already written. Now I'm writing them as I go and the creative juices seem to be flowing slower…

Please review this! I'd love to hear suggestions and constructive criticism.

I know I say this in the description, but I'm going to be paranoid if I don't add this: I do not own Code Lyoko or the characters. I do own the plot.


	8. Losing Aelita

Sissi followed Aelita to the woods, wondering where she was going. She kept back so Aelita wouldn't see her and followed her to an old house in the woods. She stepped around the tree she was hiding behind just as Aelita spotted her.

"Sissi, I want to be alone," Aelita said sternly.

"I know what you mean, I'd want to be alone too if the guy I was in love with was under the control of Xana," Sissi took a leap of faith. She thought she knew exactly why Aelita was taking things so hard. For the past few weeks she'd noticed the slight signals of their attraction to each other. Of course she also knew that both parties were clueless of the other party's affection. "I know you all think I'm a bimbo, but I'm not, I've got a good intuition when it comes to this sort of thing."

Aelita looked taken aback, and then her facial expression went back to stern. "I don't know what you're talking about… I don't love Odd, not in that way… He's one of my best friends."

"That you're in love with," Sissi finished. She looked at the house with curiosity. It was pretty ancient. It looked as if it would collapse any moment. She saw a sign that read: The Hermitage.

"This is where my father and I used to live before we went to Lyoko," Aelita explained, seeing Sissi's confusion. "Odd and I used to come here every now and then when Jeremie was being overly stubborn. He would talk to me and he even kissed me on the cheek once to make me feel better."

_Or just because he wanted to kiss you…_ Sissi thought to say. She kept that thought quiet, knowing Aelita would fight her on that. "So should we go in and talk?" She asked Aelita. "I'd love to see your old room."

Aelita nodded after a moment of thought. "I bet you can guess what color it is…" She said with a smile and led Sissi through the gates, toward the house. She pointed out the door that opened into a passage to the sewers. She told Sissi about her visions and her life she had in The Hermitage and led her up to her old room.

Sissi looked around, seeing old photos and drawings. The room was dusty as all get out and she tried to avoid touching anything, being afraid that a cloud of dust would attack her. She took a seat on the bed and Aelita sat beside her. The girls were silent for a while. Sissi noticed that Aelita was crying silently and she put her arm around her new friend.

"I'm so scared for Odd," Aelita confided.

"Me too…" was all Sissi said in response.

"Ever since he was virtualized on Lyoko for the first time… he was the first person I saw on person… With Jeremie all I saw was his face. Odd was always so carefree and easy to be around and Jeremie can be so stubborn and diplomatically lame…" Sissi stayed quiet, Letting Aelita continue. "Jeremie is always working and never knows how to relax… Odd's always having fun even when he needs to work and protecting his friends…" Aelita finished, looking up at Sissi, as if waiting for her to say something.

"Odd always had such goofy jokes," Sissi offered. "We would always make fun of each other, I'd pretend that he was just a dumbass but in reality I always thought he was hilarious…"

Sissi felt as if they were speaking about Odd as if he was dead, she kept that observation to herself though and let Aelita continue.

"Yumi and Ulrich fight all the time though… If I ever got together with Odd I would never want to fight…" Aelita said quietly.

Sissi felt her heart throb a little. Ulrich… She'd liked him since she was a kid and he liked Yumi.. "Do they really like each other so much?" She asked.

"They love each other," Aelita said matter-of-factly. "I can't think of anything they wouldn't do for each other and they work so well together, especially on Lyoko. They are just so stubborn and won't call what they have a relationship."

"Oh," Sissi said drily. She looked at the ground, her distress unnoticed by Aelita. She was still crying slightly, wiping her eyes and sniffling.

"Do you think we'll be able to get Odd back?" Aelita asked Sissi.

"I hope so. Jeremie is smart, he can figure out a way to make everything right," Sissi assured Aelita. "Now we should get back to the school… Class will start soon if it hasn't already."

Aelita nodded and smiled a small smile and stood up. She and Sissi ran back to the school and stopped in the bathroom so Aelita could clean up before they went to their class. Jeremie and Ulrich gave them their attention when they walked in. So did Mrs. Hertz.

"Nice of you to join us, ladies! You're ten minutes late! Sissi, this is routine for you but not…" Mrs. Hertz took a good look at Aelita just then. "Mrs. Stones are you alright?"

"Fine, Ma'am," Aelita said. Her voice cracked a bit because her throat was still raw from crying and Jeremie tilted his head with concern. The whole class was looking at Aelita now. "I wasn't feeling well and Sissi was making sure I would be okay. She helped a lot."

Mrs. Hertz nodded, "fine then, take your seats girls." Aelita and Sissi did just that, taking a table behind Ulrich and Jeremie.

"Are you okay, Aelita?" Ulrich asked quietly, trying not to attract Mrs. Hertz's attention.

"Fine, Ulrich," Aelita answered, she started to copy down what was on the board, busying herself so that she wouldn't think of Odd and start crying again.

"Where did you go?" Jeremie asked them.

"Aelita's old house, The Hermitage," Sissi responded. Aelita bit her lip; she knew Jeremie wouldn't like that. She regretted not asking Sissi to lie.

Jeremie was silent, he just focused on writing notes. A fraction of his mind was devoted to the lecture, another to figuring out Odd's situation, and another trying to figure out why Aelita would want to go to The Hermitage and why she was so much more upset about Odd than the rest of them.

He couldn't figure Aelita out lately, and it was starting to bother him. He pushed that aside, knowing that it was dumb for him to dwell on it. A piece of him though, was really starting to feel like he was losing Aelita.

But to what?

* * *

~Author's Notes~

So I hope you've realized that the story is told in a third person omniscient point of view. I hope it isn't confusing. I know this chapter was as far from action as you can get but I promise, the next chapter will be a thriller (I think…)

This chapter focused mainly on the relationship angle of the story. Just building my ships up XD

Also, thank you for the reviews. Please keep them coming. If anybody has any suggestions or criticism, go for it!


	9. Mission Complete

It was around midnight when Odd stepped out of the scanner in the factory. He looked and acted like like his old self, but his mind was clouded with Xana's plan. He went into the elevator that would take him up to the factory entrance and left, heading for Kadic, where his mission would take place. The first thing he did was check to make sure nobody was lingering outside.

"This place is dead quiet… perfect," Odd muttered under his breath. He made his way to the dorms, heading up to the third floor where he knew Aelita's room was. He knocked quietly and prepared for his acting role.

Aelita opened the door slowly, her eyes groggy. She was looking down, surprised to see Odd's feet she slowly looked up apprehensively. "Odd!" She said quietly, not wanting to disturb anybody in their rooms. "But how?"

"I escaped Xana's control and somehow managed to devirtualize myself, but I feel shitty," Odd said slowly, deliberately. "Can I come in?" _So I can get down to business_, he finished in his head.

Aelita hesitated. "Sure," she said, moving so he could walk in. Odd promptly fell to his knees before he could take even one step inside of her room, feigning exhaustion. Aelita held him up so he wouldn't fall and pulled him to his feet, putting his arm around her neck she escorted him into her room and closed the door. She sat him down on her bed and sat down on her computer chair.

"I'm going to call Jeremie and Ulrich so they can come too," Aelita said reaching for her phone. "They'll be so happy. You can explain it to all of us at once."

"No," Odd said quickly. "I just want to talk to you, let me regain some energy first before they see me."

Aelita, against better judgement, nodded her understanding. She was also kind of relieved… now she could have Odd all to herself. "So how did you do it?"

"Xana messed up when he was switching my memory," Odd started. "He forgot to get rid of the real stuff and I found it and remembered everything. Xana lost his hold on me and I managed to devirtualize myself with a sharp piece of rock in the desert sector."

Aelita listened intently. She thought it sounded a little off. Xana wouldn't make an error like that, it sounded like a human mistake, and human Xana was not…

"It was scary," Odd continued, sensing Aelita's skepticism. "Being captured by Xana is no fun."

"I know the feeling. I'm calling Jeremie, Ulrich, and Sissi," Aelita declared, making up her mind that Odd was still bad news. She dialed her phone before Odd could stop her and ran out of the room, closing the door behind her to trap him. Odd tried pulling at the door to open it. Aelita kicked Sissi's door to wake her up and Sissi came running out wearing a night mask on her forehead, eyes wide with irritation, and then panic when she saw Aelita's expression.

"Jeremie! Odd is in my room, he tried feeding me an escape story and things didn't add up," Aelita said as Jeremie answered his phone. Sissi nodded and helped Aelita keep Odd locked in. "Please come down here! Get Ulrich!"

A second later, Odd finally decided to electrocute the door handle to heat it up. It heated up on Aelita's end and burned her hand. She cried out in pain and snatched her hand away from the burning metal.

"Aelita!" Sissi hissed as the door opened to reveal a pissed off Odd. She put herself between him and Aelita and took up a defensive stance, hoping Ulrich and Jeremie would get there soon.

Odd smirked and held up his hand, a ball of purple electricity formed and he shot it at Sissi, who flew back against her door. Aelita, who was standing behind her, slammed into the wall and passed out from hitting her head hard.

"Aelita! Sissi!" Ulrich yelled as he and Jeremie ran to fight Odd off. At this point the fight was attracting attention; girls began opening doors, screaming, and Jim Morales scrambled up the stairs in a white tank top and boxers to see what all of the ruckus was about.

Ulrich launched himself at Odd, ready to kick him, only to have Odd send him flying backward with his own assault. The svelte, Xana possessed boy pushed Sissi out of the way and picked up an unconscious Aelita and quickly scanned for an easy escape. He found one: the window at the end of the hall. Of course, first he had to open it.

He raised a free hand at the window and sent a wild pulsation that broke the window, leaving a large enough hole for him to jump through. He felt something hit the back of his head and glared behind him at Jeremie, who had thrown a textbook that he had gotten out of Aelita's room while no one was paying attention. Odd growled and sent Jeremie and an approaching Sissi flying backward with another pulse of energy. He turned around again, focusing on the window. Seconds later he was jumping through, landing perfectly on his feet on the ground.

He carried Aelita over his shoulder to the factory, bypassing all of the shortcuts, being much faster than them anyway, thanks to Xana. He made it to the factory and quickly virtualized himself and Aelita back into Lyoko. He felt Xana's praise as he completed the mission with few complications.

* * *

~Author's Notes~

Hey, so hopefully that was thrilling enough for you… I feel like I'm horrible at writing action-ie scenes DX… Please tell me if that was any good.

I want to try to write an entire chapter in Odd's perspective and I think I know when that will be. I have I think one more chapter for you tonight and then I don't think I'll be posting multiple chapters in one day anymore…

I'm writing another fanfiction as well so I was to offer equal attention to both from now on. It's a Harry Potter fic! :D

Anyway, keep the reviews coming, they've been very encouraging so far!


	10. Odd VS Xana

Just a warning, there is a bit of foul language in this chapter.

* * *

Jeremie felt his head pounding and felt like he'd been crushed by a giant invisible tsunami. His eyes were closed, and his body was limp but he was starting to come back into consciousness. He could hear people's voices around him, panicked, scared, and he heard Jim Morale's voice ordering the girls back to their rooms.

Jeremie felt himself being flipped over and picked up by a pair of strong arms. Someone took his hand as he was taken from where he had been lying face down from Odd's attack. He opened his eyes, squinting at the light and the breeze stinging his eyes as he was carried to what he presumed would be the infirmary. He looked to see who was with him, it was Sissi. Jim was the one carrying him, of course.

"Sissi…" Jeremie whispered. Sissi smiled grimly and squeezed his hand. "Where –"

"Odd took Aelita. Ulrich's going now with Yumi to try to stop him." She said quietly. Jim wasn't paying attention to them, focusing more on getting Jeremie to the infirmary quickly. Jeremie tried nodding, feeling as though his head weighed a ton.

"What happened? Why am I so beaten and you aren't? We both were hit," Jeremie asked. He remembered everything up until Odd's blast hit him.

"Well Odd managed to send you flying through the doors that lead to the stairwell. As for me I just flew into the wall. You fell down three floors worth of stairs." Jim started paying attention, then. He looked down at Jeremie as Sissi opened the door to the building where the infirmary was for him.

"Does anything feel broken, Jeremie?" Jim asked. "That was really something… out of this world!"

They entered the infirmary then and Jim laid Jeremie out on the bed. Jeremie tried moving each part of his body. He felt an intense pain when he tried moving his right ankle and pointed that out.

The nurse asked what had happened, Jim tried to explain it but she looked at him as if he had two heads. She called the principal and looked to Jeremie to explain for himself, choosing to ignore Jim's ridiculous stories.

"I'm going to try to join the others to help. We will call you if we can," Sissi whispered to Jeremie. "Just rest, we'll get her back." She backed out of the infirmary and raced out of the building before anyone could stop her to interrogate her. She took the shortcut through the gym and headed to the factory. She found Yumi at the controls.

"What's going on?" Sissi asked, catching her breath from the run.

Yumi bit her lip. "I virtualized Ulrich to chase after Odd and Aelita. It looks like Odd is taking her to the heart of Lyoko… Are you ready to go in after them?"

Sissi nodded and Yumi started typing. Jeremie had shown all of them how to work all of the virtualization, devirtualization, combat gear, vehicles, and he showed them how to virtualize people directly into sector five

"How's Jeremie?" Yumi asked, her voice drenched in concern.

"Looks like his ankle is at least sprained, he's in the infirmary and Jim is freaking out. I think we'd better sort this out and go back in time," Sissi informed Yumi and the Asian girl nodded.

"Okay, I virtualized our rides. Because Odd can manipulate the overboard for some reason, you're riding with me. I started the delayed virtualization, I just hope I did it right… With any luck we'll be virtualized right into sector five."

The two girls raced down to the scanners just before the doors closed in on them. Sissi closed her eyes and when she opened them, she found herself ascended in the air in a blue dome. She looked down to see the eye of Xana designed on the floor. She and Yumi landed as gracefully as possible and hopped onto Yumi's Overwing. They took off when the passage opened up and waited while the sector began taking shape for them.

The room was just a wide open, empty space. There were ledges further up but nothing else. So far there didn't seem to be any traps set up. Yumi spotted the mechanism on the other side of the room, on the wall near the ceiling. She glanced around to see if any Creepers had shown up yet and didn't see any; she took off to set it off before any Creepers had the chance to stop her.

Sissi kept herself busy monitoring the room for Xana's monsters. She did see some creatures crawling into view from the high up ledges. Sissi called for her batons and began taking them out, one by oone, slowly. She was just starting to get used to keeping her balance with no hands when a surprise creeper attack knocked her off the Overwing. Sissi landed with a less than graceful flip and threw her arms out to balance herself on the ground. Yumi slowed down slightly to look back to make sure Sissi was okay before continuing on to beat the clock.

On the ground, Sissi engaged in close combat with two creepers that were crawling into the room. Using her batons as Sai daggers, she defeated them and managed to fling one of them at a Creeper on a ledge that was shooting at Yumi. Sissi looked just in time and noticed that the floor had been giving away without her notice and she was currently right at the edge, she took off for stable ground and waited for Yumi to set off the mechanism.

Just in time, Yumi set it off and the ground reset itself. Sissi tentatively stepped out and followed Yumi to a newly open corridor. Yumi dipped down close to Sissi and she hopped back onto the Overwing.

"Watch your life points. I think creepers take out twenty at a time so I think I'm down to 80," Yumi said to Sissi, who counted in her head how many times she'd been hit.

"I've got 60 life points left if you're right," Sissi responded. Yumi nodded and they rode on, not seeing any monsters.

"Things are quiet.." Sissi noted after a few minutes.

Yumi gasped, "No there not. Look up ahead!"

Sissi looked to see Ulrich holding his own against seven Creepers and a Manta. Yumi pulled the overwing up so the girls could get a good visual before joining Ulrich.

"Yumi, fly over the Manatee monster," Sissi suggested, not knowing yet what the Warriors were calling it. "I want to try something," Sissi finished. Yumi did as she was asked and Sissi jumped off, calling her batons again and landing on the Manta's back. Caught off guard the Manta moaned and tried shaking her off. Sissi kept her balance and slashed at the Manta's back. She jumped off just as the beast exploded and took out a creeper on her way down. She landed beside Ulrich, who gave a quick approving glance before he destroyed another Creeper before he was devirtualized by a different Creeper.

"Sissi you're really catching on fast," Yumi praised. She took out two creepers with her fan, leaving three creepers to deal with, and an Odd to catch up to.

Sissi smiled at the compliment but wasted no time cutting into the creepers. She got rid of two and Yumi took out the last one. "They might be really ugly but they're really easy to get rid of, so it balances out." Sissi said as she and Yumi stood in the middle of that room.

"Ulrich!" Yumi called after a minute. "Are you there? Where to next?"

"Core of Lyoko. Sorry I had to leave before the real show started," his voice called down to them from nowhere.

"Call Jeremie," Sissi told him as Yumi led them out to the edge of the sector. On the Overwing she took them down to an entrance that opened and closed rapidly. Yumi brought them through at the right moment and Sissi took in her new surroundings.

"It was a giant room - one where toward the top of the room, in the center, a large blindingly white sphere rested, floating. Also, there were four Creepers, Three Manta, and one Scyphozoa. Odd was carrying Aelita to the horrible beast and Sissi could see and hear her squirming and crying to Odd to let her go.

"We need to move. I have a feeling Xana wants Aelita to destroy the heart of Lyoko," Yumi breathed as she and Sissi sped upward on the Overwing. Sissi saw there was a blocky, uneven path that spiraled up, but figured she'd stay on the Overwing until need be.

"If Xana has Odd and Aelita under his control… I don't think I need to tell you what will happen." Ulrich warned.

"We get it," Sissi snapped as the Overwing devirtualized. She found the source of the attack and jumped for the Manta, while Yumi managed to grab onto a block of the path. Yumi started up the path, taking aim with her fans and attacking a nearby Creeper as she went.

Sissi decided to try her attack from the last Manta she destroyed. She figured her attack would go as swiftly as it did last time but she was wrong. This Manta shot upward and Sissi had to fight to stay on top of the beast. It started spinning and jerking to make her ride a rough one. She finally managed to dig her baton into the eye and jumped off, barely making it onto the path, near the top where the Scyphozoa and Odd were. She looked to see where Yumi was and saw she was further down, still dealing with the Creepers.

Sissi grimaced, seeing that Odd had handed Aelita to the Scyphozoa and was now coming to face off with her. "Ulrich! What should I do?"

"Get Aelita away from the Scyphozoa before Xana can possess her. Or else, it's all over!"

Sissi nodded. She calculated how she could do this tactfully. She knew Odd would try deflecting any of her attacks aimed for the giant squid monster. She came up with a plan that she hoped couldn't fail.

She made a run for an oncoming Manta and leapt on. She sent one baton flying at Odd, and while he was busy blocking that move, she hurled the second baton at the Scyphozoa. It cut through both of the tenticles it had around Aelita and Sissi jumped off of the Manta, catching her Baton and deflecting the creature's attack as she landed, less than gracefully.

"Sissi, you little shit!" Odd hissed at her, charging and bounding off of the ledge he was on to assault her.

Aelita woke up just then, still under her own control. She got in front of Sissi and deflected Odd's attack with two energy fields. The two girls stood face to face with Xana's Odd. Who had his paw up, ready to send laser arrows their way.

"Odd," Aelita said softly. "Odd, please."

Sissi wasn't quite sure of what to do here. She knew she needed to get rid of Odd, but she also didn't know if devirtualizing him was the way to do it. She stood guarded beside Aelita, calling upon the second baton that Odd had obliterated when it hit him. That was an upside to her weapons, she could rematerialize them even if they are destroyed.

"Aelita, please," Odd mocked, standing in a dominating offensive position.

"Odd, you must stop obeying Xana… we're you're friends," Aelita pleaded.

"Friends? You guys did nothing but belittle my ability," Odd said angrily. He looked to Sissi. "and this bitch caused nothing but problems. I don't understand why she's here at all."

He took aim and fired at Sissi. Luckily for Sissi, Yumi approached just in time. She tried deflecting his attack with her fans and ended up getting herself devirtualized instead.

"Odd, you're stronger than Xana!" Aelita tried again. She took a step toward him. Sissi was still a little shaken by Yumi rescuing her and didn't notice. "You're a Lyoko Warrior, vowed to take Xana down, not help him succeed!" Aelita continued.

Odd felt a small confliction at this statement. He remembered the week when Jeremie discovered Lyoko. Ulrich had accidentally led Odd and Sissi to the factory and he'd been the first to visit Lyoko. He remembered how cool it all was.

He also remembered their pact to defeat Xana. His head began to hurt and he flinched, still holding his offensive position.

Aelita saw this moment of altercation within him and approached him, taking one of his black paws in her hand, lowering his other arm and holding it softly. She looked into his eyes, willing him to break away from Xana, begging even…

Xana saw this moment of weakness as well. "Devirtualize her now!" He commanded.

Odd shook his head slightly, wanting to refuse. He felt his body quake as he moved his arm slightly and obeyed Xana's command. Aelita felt the blow from a close up laser arrow to the belly and saw the pain in his eyes as she pixelated and disappeared in a flurry of a million white squares. Odd took Sissi out next and watched her devirtualize after Aelita.

Odd couldn't help it but he kept remembering the old times, his old life with his friends. He didn't hate any of them, he adored them, each of them. He even liked Sissi to an extent. He felt the flooding of memories being interrupted. Odd felt a horrible war being waged in his head and wasn't sure which side to fight for. It was Odd Versus Xana and he knew he had to fight for himself, and for his friends.

"I'm a Lyoko Warrior, vowed to stop Xana," he said finally. "Xana get the fuck out!"

* * *

~Author's Notes~

So there you go~ I'm kind of proud of this chapter… I know it isn't the best, and again, I really think I stink at action scenes. Either way I think this is one of my favorite chapters.


	11. Game Plan

Sissi fell out of the scanner as the doors opened. She reached out her hands so she wouldn't face plant into the floor. She shook her head, willing her balance and composure to be restored.

She saw Aelita in the next scanner over, curled up, crying softly. She stood up and approached the pink haired girl.

"He came back for a second, I think," Sissi said softly. Aelita nodded and Sissi put her hand on Aelita back and rubbed it, hoping to soothe her a little.

"So we'll get him back," Yumi interrupted. Sissi spun to see Yumi was descending the stairs. "Ulrich said he's going to launch the return to the past. Jeremie is dodging questions by the authorities. I guess everyone on the girls floor of the dorms is really shaken up."

Sissi nodded just as the usual flash of light engulfed them and she found herself in her bed. Finishing her homework. She looked at the clock; it was ten at night, two hours before Odd had come to Kadic.

She got up from her bed, abandoning her homework. She opened the door of her room to see Ulrich and Jeremie walking down the hallway toward her.

"We need to talk, all four of us," Jeremie told her. Ulrich knocked on Aelita's door and she came, her eyes bloodshot. Sissi closed her door behind her and followed the boys into Aelita's room. Jeremie sat with Aelita, stroking her hair to comfort her.

"While Xana has control of Odd I don't think it'd be safe for any of us to be alone," Ulrich started. "I called Yumi, she said her parents would never agree to make her a boarder, but the rest of us can stay in groups at night…"

"Ulrich is sleeping in my room . We were thinking, for the time being, the two of you could sleep in each other's rooms?" Jeremie asked the girls. "If Odd comes back here again… it's too dangerous for us to be separated. We're going to have to find a way for Yumi to be safe at home but with you two it's easier…"

The girls nodded, Sissi had already been planning to bring it up anyway.

"The real Odd came back for a second there," Aelita said quietly. "He remembers us, that we're his friends…"

Jeremie took her hand with his free hand and she looked up at him, feeling strangely guilty for letting him hold her.

"One thing I don't get, Aelita," Ulrich started. "is why you let Odd into your room alone? It was kind of a risky move on your part and you should have known that …"

"He looked like he was hurting. And he faked exhaustion. I guess I wasn't thinking," Aelita explained. She left out the part about how she was going to call them sooner but he convinced her not to. "When he started feeding me a false story, I picked up on some subtle flaws and bolted. I tried trapping him in there but he burned my hand…"

"We need to figure this now though. Soon. Xana knows Odd's slipping from his grip and he's going to try strengthening it. I say we put together a game plan to get Odd into a tower.," Ulrich announced. "Jeremie do you have that program finished?"

Jeremie nodded. "We can go tomorrow. I don't think we'll all need to go."

"I'm going," Aelita announced. "Don't try to stop me."

"I might need your help on the technical front anyway," Jeremie agreed.

"And I'm going. I don't care about my classes…" Sissi chimed in. "Plus I think I'm doing pretty well on Lyoko…"

"I can't miss tomorrow, sadly," Ulrich groaned. "There's a big test in the morning. I'll come during lunch to see if you all need help."

"So Yumi and Ulrich stay behind, Sissi and Aelita join me," Jeremie concluded. "Hopefully we can finish this once and for all."

* * *

~A/N~

So this is just a short, transitiony chapter… You can tell the next one will be exciting, right? Can you guess how?

No? Neither can I! XD I need to plan this out a bit, hopefully it doesn't take too long. I want to do this right!


	12. Waging War

Odd wasn't having a very good time at all. He kept trying to break Xana's hold but nothing was working. He even tried to go into a tower to see if he could clear his mind of Xana that way. His latest attempt at freedom was an attempt to devirtualize himself, which was a bust since Xana still had a weak control over his body.

"Xana can't you just take your fucking self and go away? You know my friends, my real friends, are going to come back, they're going to fix this…" Odd tried to reason. He was standing dead center in the mountain sector. He tried to think of new ways that he could break Xana's hold. At this point, Xana has a faint possession of Odd's mind and body. Odd had the majority of control. He was trying to expel Xana from his mind completely but Xana wasn't willing to leave.

Out of the blue a guardian appeared. Odd felt a surge of adrenalin and bolted from the scene. He couldn't run far before he witnessed the unspeakable.

Twenty kankralats, twenty hornets, ten bloks, ten krabs, five megatanks, three tarantulas, and two Mantas…

"Let them come," Xana's voice rumbled in Odd's head as Odd felt his body being engulfed in the guardian, after which his world went black. The army of monsters surrounded the guardian and let out a synchronized battle cry.

Xana felt a pang of fear as he struggled to figure out a way to keep his hold over Odd. Of course he could always use the Scyphozoa again, but that tactic is proving futile. Xana couldn't risk failing once more.

How can those meddlesome little brats keep getting the better of him? He was a bloody super capable artificial intelligence! Incapable of making the mistakes that a live intellectual being made all the time! He couldn't fathom why his brilliantly concocted plans always failed to succeed! He figured that taking control of part of the problem would help him, but he was proving to be more of a liability than he had foreseen.

Perhaps if Xana lured the warriors to Lyoko, he could find a way to finish them off for good…

But how?

~Back at Kadic~

**_Beep, Beep, beep, beep!_**

Ulrich heard it first; groggily awaking he approached the computer and balled his fist angrily as he saw the screen. He shook his body to a state of full awareness and went to wake Jeremie, who was already in the process of coming into consciousness.

"Jeremie, there is an activated tower in the Ice Sector," Ulrich told him. Jeremie jerked his glasses onto his face and went to his computer to make sure of it.

_Why can't things ever just go as planned?_ Jeremie thought bitterly as he read the screen. _Xana always has to throw a curve ball!_

"Call Aelita and tell her to get Sissi. I'll call Yumi," Jeremie commanded, rushing to the pile of clean clothes he hadn't had the chance to put away, and grabbed a clean shirt and pants. Ulrich nodded his phone to his ear. He ran out of Jeremie's room to go to his own room to get some clothes for himself.

_What could Xana's be planning now?_ Jeremie thought anxiously. He dialed Yumi's number and before he could press the talk button, he had an incoming call.

From Yumi.

_Shit, this can't be good,_ Jeremie thought as he answered her call.

"Yumi?" He asked. He heard nothing but heavy breathing and some clattering metal and felt his heart pounding.

"Jeremie Xana's taken over my little brother! He's trying to kill me! I got out of the house but Hiroki is gaining on me!" Yumi panted. Jeremie heard static and a cry of pain on Yumi's end and the call disconnected. Ulrich appeared at Jeremie's door just then, seeing Jeremie's face Ulrich's eyes widened with concern.

"Is Yumi coming?" Ulrich asked. "Aelita and Sissi are on their way to the factory now."

"Yumi's little brother has been possessed. You need to go help her. I will go with Aelita and Sissi to go deactivate the tower," Jeremie decided and rushed out the door, shutting, and locking it on his way out. Ulrich nodded after a moment and the two were off, running through the dormitory building and out onto the school campus. At this point, Ulrich split with Jeremie to leave the campus to go to the city to find Yumi, and Jeremie went to the park.

Jeremie found the manhole and lifted the lid, to find that Sissi and Aelita were both at the bottom, preparing to take off. He quickly descended the ladder to join them. Jeremie took the remaining scooter and opened it, stepping on and the three were off. Sissi led the way, being the fastest on her skateboard.

"What's Xana up to on Earth?" Aelita asked when they reached the end of the sewer. Sissi climbed up and opened the manhole cover that separated them from the bridge and pulled the other two out behind her.

"He's attacking Yumi via Hiroki. Ulrich is going to help her so we need to be on our game because I'm not sure how that will go," Jeremie told them. The girls both nodded, both determined. The three swung down the ropes to reach the elevator that would take them down to the super calculator. The elevator dropped Jeremie off on his floor and Aelita and Sissi went to the scanners.

"Jeremie, after we deactivate the tower…" Aelita started to ask before her scanner doors closed.

"Yes, Aelita, we will look into freeing Odd. Our top priority is saving Yumi right now though."

Aelita landed right onto Ulrich's Overbike. She waited as Sissi was virtualized onto the Overwing and the girls were off.

"The tower is activated… Holy shit!" Jeremie exclaimed. Aelita stopped abruptly; Sissi skidded to a halt and looked up at where she envisioned Jeremie's face would be. She could just see it, a giant Jeremie looking down at them from his seat in the super computer room.

"There are… _a lot_ of monsters. I can't believe this…" Jeremie breathed. He counted the red dots on the screen. "70 monsters altogether!"

Aelita gasped, she'd never heard of Xana gather that many monsters at once.

"What should we do, Jeremie? Should we check it out or no?" Sissi asked, her voice shaking.

"I… I don't know. I suppose you should check it out, see if you can see why Xana has gathered so many monsters… be extremely careful!"

Sissi and Aelita nodded. Aelita hopped off of Ulrich's bike – it was best on land. She joined Sissi on the Overwing and the girls took to the skies. "Head southwest," Jeremie told them, biting his nails. He watched the screen anxiously and decided to give Ulrich a call to tell him the latest.

"Yeah, Jeremie?" Ulrich's voice wheezed.

"Xana has _70 monsters_ defending the tower!" Jeremie cried. "How are things on your end? Can you tell me that you and Yumi are on your way here?"

"If I said that I'd be lying. I found Yumi but she's in bad shape, out cold… I managed to take Hiroki out for a minute or so but he's on my tail again. We're coming to the bridge now…"

"Just do what you can and try your best to get yourselves here…" Jeremie requested. Ulrich hung up and Jeremie went back to Aelita and Sissi. "Yumi's in bad shape, Ulrich is trying to shake Hiroki off but he's having some trouble? How are things on Lyoko?"

"The monsters are surrounding the tower and a Guardian," Aelita told him. "Odd's inside of it…"

"You think Xana was losing his grip on Odd so he panicked and put Odd inside?" Sissi wondered aloud. She looked down upon the monster army below them. None of the creatures had spotted them yet, but she knew they would soon if they stayed airbourne, right over their heads.

Aelita knew this too and turned around, speeding off so they could hide out somewhere and come up with some sort of plan.

"Let me check the feed. I put together a sort of recorder a while ago so we could see the activity on Lyoko while we're gone. I'll check to see what Odd was doing before Xana trapped him. For now, you two stay put and hopefully backup will be there soon…"

Jeremie decided it would be best to start with the log from sector five, right after their last visit. Odd stood there with Aelita, Aelita was holding him begging him to remember his friends and his vow to destroy Xana. Sissi stood to the side, watching carefully, looking as if she had no idea what to do. Odd suddenly devirtualized the two of them and Jeremie could see the confliction going on inside of his friend.

Jeremie continued watching Odd until Odd began speaking: "I'm a Lyoko Warrior, vowed to stop Xana," he said finally. "Xana get the fuck out!"

Jeremie smiled victoriously but then grimaced as a dark cloud surrounded Odd and he fought to get out of it. In the next moment, he disappeared. Jeremie sprung into action, searching the other sectors for where Odd might have gone to. He found luck when he found Odd running through the desert region, looking determined and terrified. While Odd ran Jeremie could see him falter, stop, fight, but he kept going until he found a neutral tower.

Odd sat inside of the tower, talking to himself, trying to reinforce the memories and feelings he knew he truly had. He mentioned each of his friends.

"Yumi is my friend, she is loyal, strong, protective, in love with Ulrich even though she won't admit it, and she's a year older than me… Ulrich is my roommate and best friend, he kicks ass at Martial Arts but sucks at video games, he is in love with Yumi. Jeremie is the smartest kid in school, tends to be super stubborn and whiny when he feels someone is challenging his ideas… but he's one of the most loyal friends and he's willing to help anyone in need. Plus none of us would be friends if it wasn't for him discovering Lyoko. " Jeremie smiled, seeing that his friend seemed to have a good grip of his old perception of his friends. "And Aelita is the strongest, bravest girl I know, she's beautiful and sweet, and she has the prettiest eyes…and I'm so grateful that she's on Earth… I just wish I could get back to be part of that world again." Odd finished.

Jeremie saw Odd grab at his head and stand up. "Xana give up! Get out!" He roared. He fell over the edge of the platform in the tower and plummeted into a new tower, in the ice Sector.

Odd left the tower, looking around. Jeremie watched as Odd's face lit up with an idea. He lifted his arm and aimed a paw at his gut. Suddenly he jerked his arms to his side and howled in pain. Dropping to his knees he stayed motionless for a few minutes.

Odd stood up, standing still, looking irritated. Jeremie watch Odd try once more to will Xana to give up and then watched in horror as a Guardian appeared behind him and the 70 monster army appear in front of him. Odd was surrounded, and Jeremie watched as Odd was engulfed in the terrible, orange bubble monster.

Something was different about this guardian though. The creature seemed to pulse slowly, with each pulse came a flash of red.

Jeremie did a scan on the Guardian to figure out why it pulsed red. He watched as his scan filed through everything he already knew about guardians until he spotted it. This wasn't a normal Guardian, it was a leech.

It was draining Odd of his life points.

* * *

~A/N~

Dun, Dun, Duuuuuun! So there, I had fun writing this, so I hope you all have fun reading! Let me know what you think of this so far. I think this fan fiction will have a few more chapters at the most… and I think I have a few ideas for a sequel to this fan fic… who knows what'll happen from here? I don't!


	13. The Giant Purple Cat is Back!

Yumi Ishimaya waited less than patiently for the elevator doors to open into the computer room. She saw Jeremie sitting at the computer. He looked back at her with an expression that could dampen the spirits of the greatest optimist.

"What's happening on Lyoko?" Yumi asked, standing, hand on the red button, ready to go down to the scanners.

"Odd's trapped in a Guardian. I have a feeling that Xana is losing his control over Odd and feels that if he can't have him, no one can. The Guardian is draining his life points and I think that translates into the life force he has on Earth…"

Yumi gasped, clutching her free hand into a fist. "And?"

"There are 70 monsters protecting the Guardian and the tower. Where is Ulrich?" Jeremie asked.

"Fighting off Hiroki. I woke up and he told me to come help. I'm going in now, start the process," Yumi ordered, pressing the red button.

Yumi tried to use the moment in the elevator to clear her head. She felt like this was it, this would be the fight of their lives. There was no room for error, here.

The doors to the scanner room opened and Yumi stepped into her usual scanner, "I'm ready Jeremie!" She called up and the doors to her scanner closed. She felt herself being transferred, scanned, and when the time came to it she was virtualized onto Lyoko.

"Aelita and Sissi are just west of you, sitting behind some rocks, waiting for you," Jeremie informed Yumi as she landed on the white ground that was meant to emulate snow. She nodded, whipping out her fans and taking off to join the other warriors.

She looked around, trying to spot them early, and that she did. Aelita was waving to her and beckoning to her. Sissi was motioning to be careful, the army of monsters wasn't far from them.

Yumi did see some kankralats; they were wandering around aimlessly looking for the girls. _Xana knows we're here_, Yumi thought as she reached the girls.

"So what's our plan?" Yumi asked them immediately. "We don't have much time, it seems. Jeremie just told me –"

"I have a plan… and I don't know how well it will work…" Aelita started. "I think I can send clones of the three of us out there to take our places. If I can position them just right, I think I can use them as bombs to get rid of the majority of the blockade."

"You can create explosive clones?" Yumi asked skeptically. Aelita nodded in response.

"Remember when the Guardian had you? Well when I created the clone of you to confuse it, the clone is what caused it to explode. You were passed out so you didn't see it…"

"And once we set off the bombs we go in and clean up what is left over?" Yumi asked, just to make sure. "This could work… we've got everything to lose and no choice, so let's go!"

Aelita nodded. They decided that Aelita would go alone to send the explosive clones. Jeremie would keep Yumi and Sissi informed. On his command, they would charge into battle with Aelita in the lead.

Aelita positioned herself behind a wall of ice that was just in front of the army. She concentrated on creating the clones, before sending them off she made sure they looked believable.

The Yumi Clone charged first, flipping as far into the army as she could. The clones were set to detonate when hit with any sort of laser. Once Yumi was knee-deep in Bloks and Kankralats, she stopped and allowed a laser to hit her. A huge explosion rang out over the ice sector and Aelita asked Jeremie if it had worked.

"That took out all the Kankralats, fifteen of the hornets, three bloks… it even took out one krab and one megatank! Hopefully the second clone is as effective…" Jeremie said to Aelita. He punched the air in a fit of excitement. "Aelita you are the greatest! Have I told you that lately?"

Aelita smiled in a bitter sweet way. She wasn't sure if the monsters would so readily shoot as the second clone, but she sent the Sissi clone out anyway.

Little did she know, above her a hornet had spotted her and began firing at her. Aelita gasped and put two energy fields together to create a shield to block the attacks.

The Sissi clone knew it had to do this right, she bounded into the remaining army, positioning herself in the middle of the remaining bloks, near enough to some krabs that she hoped she would destroy some of those too. A laser hit her and she ignited.

"The rest of the bloks are down, there's only three hornets left… and that one got rid of three krabs! Amazing! Sissi, Yumi, you can go in now!" Jeremie said, he almost felt optimistic about this battle.

The true Yumi and Sissi both nodded, they hopped onto the Overboard and took off. "Let's go for the Mantas first," Sissi suggested when they spotted the battle. Aelita was holding her own against the remainder of the hornets and doing pretty well on her own; her wings were activated and she was swooping down on the hornets with a look of fierce determination.

"I agree, the mantas are the biggest threat," Yumi responded. She took them up high and did a quick assessment. Six krabs, four megatanks, three tarantulas, and two Mantas…

"Jeremie… If Ulrich could hurry…" Yumi pleaded thinking of how impossible this would still be.

Sissi startled Yumi by jumping off the Overwing at that point. She hadn't realized it but a manta was nearby, taking aim to attack with a charged laser. Sissi took aim for the beast and sent both batons flying at it. One baton managed to scrap a wing, and the other baton grazed its back. The manta moaned its discontent, but didn't devirtualize. Yumi sent her fan flying at the eye of Xana on its back just at the right moment and sent the creature into oblivion.

Sissi landed just in front of the krabs, snatching her batons she stood in a battle-ready pose. Yumi retrieved her fan and started heading for the second manta, who had its sights set of Aelita.

"Hey, you overgrown manatee," Yumi called loudly. "She's not interested. Try me on for size, though!"

She caught it's attention and it came flying at her, ignoring Aelita, who was busy watching the last of the hornets die off.

"Aelita you have twenty life points! Be careful!" Jeremie warned. "Yumi, Sissi, you both have sixty!"

Yumi focused her energy on hitting the target. She wanted to take out this manta quickly so she could go protect Aelita. They needed her if they were going to free Odd from the Guardian. She jumped off of her overwing at just the right time, jumping onto the Manta's back and slashing the eye of Xana. She did a backflip off of the beast before watching it burst.

Sissi was holding her own against the Krabs but the Tarantulas wanted a piece of the action as well. She was having a harrd time attacking and defending herself all at once. She tried to use one baton as a shield and use the other as a weapon. This worked to obliterate one tarantula and two krabs, but just at that moment a megatank opened its shell and fired right at her, devirtualizing her.

"Sissi!" Aelita cried as she took aim and fired at the megatank before it could close its shell. "Energy Field!"

Sissi stepped out of the scanner then and shook off the fuzzy weakness she felt. She climbed the ladder up to the computer room. "Jeremie…"

"Sissi, go help Ulrich! With any luck we can get him on Lyoko to help.., I know he hates megatanks but he has no choice!" Jeremie seemed to be as on edge as a person could get. Sissi ran to the elevator, rushing in and pressing the button before it could even open its doors completely.

When she reached the main floor, she immediately saw the action unfold in front of her. Ulrich was circling with Hiroki, the way most people do when fighting. He made the mistake of looking over at her and Hiroki took the chance to make a move.

Sissi's senses went on high alert. She jumped out, sending a rroundhouse kick to Hiroki's head before he could lay into Ulrich.

"Go! They need you," Sissi hissed at Ulrich and he nodded. He bolted for the elevator and pressed the button before Hiroki could stop him. When Hiroki realized what had happened he howled and rushed at Sissi.

"How dare you!" Hiroki's Xanafied voice hissed at Sissi as his hands began to glow with a yellow energy that was meant for her.

Sissi tried to dodge the attack but failed. She was sent flying into a pole and felt herself black out.

Back on Lyoko, Aelita and Yumi were back to back, surrounded by the remaining four krabs, one Tarantula, and two megatanks. They could clearly see Odd now, his eyes were closed and they could see the red pulsation that Jeremie said meant his life force was being drained.

Aelita took one desperate leap, activating her wings she took aim at the tarantula. "Energy field!" Two field sprouted from her palms and hit the tarantula square in the eye.

"Aelita, make a run for the tower, now! You're right there!" Yumi screamed, blocking lasers left and right from the krabs.

"Triplicate!" Yumi looked for a moment to see Ulrich encircle a megatank and when the time was right, he jabbed a saber into the target, getting away just in time as the giant bowling ball exploded into digital smithereens.

"Glad to see me?" Ulrich asked Yumi, she smiled in response and returned her focus to the krabs.

"Take care of the last megatanks," she instructed him and he did so.

Meanwhile, Aelita had made a dash for the tower, and was in the process of deactivating it.

"Aelita, stay in the tower until Ulrich and Yumi are done with the monsters," Jeremie said to her when she was done. "They are almost done. All that's left is the megatank... Yumi was just devirtualized! Ulrich youo're on your own with the megatank!"

Aelita waited anxiously for Ulrich to finish with the creature and thought of defying Jeremie's wishes and helping, but she knew that it would be against better judgement…

"Alright!" Jeremie cheered suddenly. "Unfortunately, Ulrich devirtualized the megatank just as it was firing so he was devirtualized too. Aelita it's up to you to get Odd out of the Guardian, can you handle it?"

Back in the computer room, Sissi was collapsing out of the elevator with a broken arm and some cuts and bruises on her face. Yumi ran over to her to tend to the damage and Ulrich was climbing up the ladder to watch over Jeremie's shoulder to watch the action.

"This is it," Jeremie breathed eagerly. The boys watched as Aelita tricked the guardian into thinking it had the wrong prisoner. The beast released an unconscious Odd and engulfed the decoy. Aelita picked Odd up and ran into the inactive tower for Jeremie to do his thing.

Behind an icy rock two Kankralats peaked at the tower. Being separated from the army, they had missed the entire fight. They scurried over to the tower and began pounding on it in a fit of anxious confusion. They knew they were supposed to stop the Warriors from getting Odd, but they didn't know how they could possibly get them now. They started firing lasers at the tower, hoping that would please Xana.

Inside the tower, Aelita laid Odd down and looked at him; He looked like he was having a bad dream, his lips were tightly closed, his eyelids were trembling, as if trying to open. "Jeremie, what now?" Aelita asked.

"Move him to the center. Even though he isn't standing, I can do a scan and run the program that should snap things back into place and expel Xana completely," Jeremie explained to her. She did what she was told and stood back, watching as Odd's body floated upward as Jeremie started the scan.

"He's not dead, he only has three life points, so he was close…" Jeremie stated, sliding a round disk into the computer. "I'm starting the process, it will take a few minutes though."

Aelita felt the tower quake slightly and turned around. She left the tower to find the two Kankralats, frantically firing lasers at the tower.

"You little roaches need to beat it!" Aelita hissed and kicked one up into the air, firing an energy field at it.

The second one managed to hit her, taking ten life points. She knew she had ten left. She took aim and fired, getting rid of that one too.

"Nice work, Aelita," Jeremie praised. "it sounds like Odd is waking up. I still can't see his avatar card, and I don't think I can contact him because his character is all bugged up still… go back into the tower and monitor him for me, can you do that?"

Aelita walked back through the wall of the tower to find Odd was, in fact, awake. He was still ascended in the air, and his eyes immediately locked with hers.

He smiled.

Aelita felt like crying. "Oh, Odd! How do you feel?" Aelita asked him, hardly containing her joy.

"I feel pretty shitty," Odd responded. At that moment Jeremie's program was finished and he dropped down the two feet and instantly took a seat. His clothes were faded back to his usual purple.

Aelita took a seat next to him. "Jeremie, he's back! Our Giant Purple Cat is back!"

With that Aelita grabbed onto Odd, embracing him in a desperate hug. She felt his surprise, but then he wrapped his arms around her to return the hug.

"Did you miss me or what, princess?" He laughed. She looked at him and nodded furiously.

Without thinking, she leaned in and kissed him, right on the mouth.

She heard a choking sound and realized that Jeremie could see what was going on. "I'm rematerializing you two…" he said, trying to sound calm.

Back In the computer room, Ulrich put his arm around Jeremie's shoulders; He'd known that Aelita would probably do that, even if by accident. Jeremie entered the rematerialization codes and the four of them went down to the scanner room to welcome the long lost Odd back to them.

* * *

~A/N~

So... yeah. We're coming to a close here! I hope this is satisfactory for everybody! let me know... Reviews are beautiful :)


	14. Stronger After All

Odd spent three days sleeping and recovering after he fell out of the scanner. They kept him in an empty room in the factory while he recovered. Ulrich and Jeremie brought Odd some comfortable blankets and pillows from his room. Yumi went to a supermarket in the city to get some food for when Odd would wake up. Sissi made sure he was in a stable condition, made sure he didn't actually need to go to a hospital. Aelita refused to leave his side the while. Jeremie used the voice converter to tell the principal that Aelita had gone to join Odd and his family for the last few days of vacation, since she was supposed to be his cousin, the principal bought it.

One night, while Odd was digging into a bag of chips that was included in Yumi's care package from the super market, Aelita was there, sleeping against the wall, right next to him. Suddenly Aelita fell into a more comfortable position, which happened to be right on the edge of Odd's makeshift bed. He looked at her and smiled, lifting her with what energy he had so she was on the bed with him. He lied down with her and covered them up and fell asleep that way, cuddled with Aelita.

In the morning Aelita was the first to awake, and she was shocked to find she was in bed with Odd. When had this happened? She turned her head slightly to see Odd's face, up close. She smiled sleepily and kissed him, accidentally waking him. She felt his arms gather around her waist and pull her closer, eyes gazing at her as if she were in a dream.

"What a nice way to wake up," he murmured.

Aelita kissed him again. "How are you feeling?"

"Better," Odd promised. "I think I can go back to school tomorrow. I think one more day of sleeping will do it."

Aelita nodded and grinned. "Mrs. Hertz misses you."

"I miss her too!" Odd said sarcastically. "Bet she's making all sorts of cracks at me since I'm not there."

"No Jeremie said she's just lonely. She has nobody to pick on, except for Ulrich, of course."

"Poor Ulrich." Odd closed his eyes and his breath evened, slowed and Aelita knew he'd fallen back asleep. She decided would just stay and keep him warm. These blankets didn't really do their job. She knew it was just because the room itself was so cold. She snuggled against Odd's body and pulled the blankets in, trying to make him as comfortable as possible.

Odd felt himself slip into a nightmare, one where he relived his experience, being possessed by Xana. He remembered devirtualizing his friends, the fear and worry in their faces. The evil he felt inside of himself. Sure it felt cool to have stronger laser arrows, but it wasn't worth it considering he had to use them against his friends.

"Odd, you're stronger than Xana!" He remembered Xana control began to shatter at that statement. "You're a Lyoko Warrior, vowed to take Xana down, not help him succeed!" the dream Aelita continued.

And Xana had seen that she was getting to him. Unwillingly Odd had shot at Aelita to get her away. The look of anguish in her eyes would forever haunt him.

He had been the one to cause that anguish.

Odd woke up just then, realizing that he was sweating. Aelita was still right next to him, sleeping soundly. He got up, trying not to disturb her, and left the room quickly. He needed some air.

Odd walked through the factory and found his way outside. The factory was located on a man-made island so he was surrounded by water. He took a seat near the edge of the building and looked up at the sky. The sun was bright and there were only a few clouds, scattered far apart from each other.

It was so nice outside and Odd felt so bad on the inside.

"hey Odd!" Odd looked to see who it was. Ulrich was walking across the bridge and he'd spotted Odd off to the side. "What are you doing there?"

"Just wanted some fresh air. I'll meet you in the room," Odd offered, standing up carefully and walking back into the factory through the side door that he'd come out of. He went to wake up Aelita real fast before Ulrich reached them.

Odd sat down on the bed next to Aelita and watched as Ulrich walked in. Odd hadn't noticed it before but Yumi and Sissi were with him as well. The three of them looked around to make sure everything was okay and sat down in folding chairs around Odd and Aelita.

"So how are you doing Odd?" Sissi asked.

"I feel fine. My head's still feels a little weird but I think I can start going back to classes," Odd told them.

"Hey, that's great," Ulrich said with a grin. "So we can take you back to the school tonight, Sissi can tell her dad that you and Aelita are back, and you can get a real shower – bet your dying for one of those."

Odd nodded. He still couldn't get used to the idea of Sissi being part of the group, but he was glad that they had a fourth member of the Lyoko Warriors. Maybe taking out Xana would be more possible with her. He felt a yawn push through his throat and looked groggily at his friends. This happened a lot, he got tired pretty easily and he hated not having as much energy as he normally did. Jeremie told him that it was because he was virtualized for so long and hadn't gotten very good sleep since.

"Okay, so sleep for a few more hours here," Yumi suggested We just left during lunch to check on you but we need to go back for the rest of our classes."

"We'll be back during dinner with Jeremie and we'll all go back to the school together," Sissi said and with that, the three of them waved their goodbyes and left Aelita and Odd alone.

Odd slumped down to a lying down position on the bed and Aelita brought his head onto her lap and looked down at him. He looked up at her and smiled. "Crazy week, hmm?"

"Terrifying is more like it…" Aelita corrected with a weak smile.

The image of Aelita devirtualizing right in front of him flashed before Odd's eyes. The look on her face… "Yeah, it was pretty horrible…"

Aelita shook her head as if she were trying to shake an image out of her head. "That's behind us now."

"And I like to think that we're stronger after all that," Odd added. He took her hands in his.

Aelita nodded. "We are," she agreed, leaning down, Odd met her half way, their lips met in a kiss that hinted of more to come.

* * *

~A/N~

I'm so bad with ending stories… but I did it! I am definitely going to write more stories that I guess will be like sequels to this. I hope you enjoyed that fan fiction! Please let me know what you thought. I thrive on feedback, I really do.


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